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Meet Emily Marazzo

Let’s get something straight: I have no idea what I’m doing.
This isn’t an excuse, and it’s not an apology, but it’s the truth.

Two decades ago, in the cold backdrop of a Michigan winter,
some doctor slapped me on the butt and told me to get on with my life. Two
weeks after that, my poor mother flew herself and her new baby down to central
Texas, where my dad followed shortly thereafter, and we’ve lived ever since. My
younger brothers and I are all the products of two wonderfully geeky parents. I
still remember Dad recording “Dragon Ball-Z” episodes on VHS, and being made to
watch “Trigun,” completely unaware that anime would be my gateway to geek
culture some years later.

I started finding things on my own around the beginning of
middle school, and what kicked it all off was “Death Note,” found when channel
surfing late one Saturday night. Initially, and without reason, I was very
secretive about the whole thing. Friday afternoon I would check the On-Demand
channel and look for new episodes before my Mother got home. She eventually
found out about my obsession and then proceeded to buy me the entire manga
series for my birthday the following year, and my Dad accompanied myself and my
friend to our first con where I cosplayed as one of the characters from the
show.

I was either cosplaying as Near or as Sophia Petrillo, it's anyone's guess.

Ikkicon (still, to my knowledge, being held every year right
here in Austin) changed my entire life. It was there that I was introduced to a
community of people who were nothing but kind and willing to share something
that they loved with a shy little girl who, a year and a half prior, thought
that anime was a taboo that should be hidden like a stack of Playboys or a
carton of cigarettes under your bed.

The second biggest milestone that happened to me didn’t come
until my family had picked up from my childhood home of fourteen years and moved
us about thirty minutes North of Austin to the alien city of Round Rock. I had
fallen into my old habit of keeping my head low and my mouth shut when it
seemed like no one wanted anything to do with me. Something that helped me cope
was a new podcast that had come out called, “Welcome to Night Vale.” I remember
listening to the first episode and being amazed that other people thought the
way that I did, and were even becoming popular because of it! Just like with
Death Note, every other week I would eagerly tune in to listen to the most
recent episode of “Welcome to Night Vale,” which I still do to this day.

My favorite thing to do is to listen to podcasts, although I
don’t read manga or watch anime as much as I read comics now. I wasn’t lying to
you when I said I didn’t know what I was doing, and I am far from being
perfect. The flip side of that is I’m doing something, and I’m giving it my all. Hopefully you think so too.

Emily Marazzo is a
sort-of adult living in Central Texas. She likes monarch butterflies, violent
revolution, dogs, and getting into trouble with her best friend. You can see
what she’s up to on Twitter, if you feel like it.